Polish Forces

War 1939

Sub-Lieutenant Jan Dzwonek took part in the defensive war 1939. He was wounded, his plane was damaged, and he parachuted and was gunned by a German pilot. The German pilot was chased away by a Polish plane and Dzwonek was saved. Machine gunning Polish pilots, hanging on parachutes, was a standard German procedure during the 1939 war. The painting on Dzwonek’s plane was his proposition as an emblem for his ‘eskadra’, but it wasn’t accepted by the commanding officer. When looking in my source I noticed that some small air units were called ‘eskadra’, when the others were known as ‘dywizjon’. I don’t understand the difference as yet.